December 2004 - January 2005

Recollections
from a pioneering woman scientist

The day that lightning hit Peggy LeMone’s house, it
sparked not only the roof but also the 8-year-old’s
interest in weather, so much that she took some of the roof
debris to show-and-tell at school the next day. Peggy’s
budding meteorological career, however, almost got sidetracked
when she found herself attending an all-girls high school
in the early 1960s that wouldn’t allow her to take
both math and science at the same time. Teachers thought
it would have been harmful to her brain, which was already
dangerously advanced for a girl her age.

On November 30, several dozen staffers listened to Peggy’s
presentation, “Women in the Atmospheric Sciences: Progress,
Barriers, and Opportunities.” Now a senior scientist
in MMM (she became NCAR’s first female senior scientist
in 1992), Peggy was part of the core group of women in meteorology
who not only experienced but helped propel some of the social
changes of the past 40 years. She and her peers worked from
the 1960s onward to create career opportunities and workplace
conditions for female scientists that are now practically
taken for granted.

“I think the major challenge now is to make sure we
don’t lose what we have today,” Peggy told the
audience.

As an example of the problems women currently face, she pointed
out that scientists are increasingly funded with soft money.
With soft money come hard deadlines, which can complicate
matters for women wishing to take maternity leave or reduce
their workload. “When I was having my kids, I was 100%
base-funded, so it was relatively easy not only to take maternity
leave, but to work part time for five years,” she said. “But
now this is a huge issue.”

War and Sputnik

Regardless of how women grapple with maternity leave, Peggy
made it clear in her presentation that women in science have
come a long way. Western philosophers, she explained, saw
science as an inherently masculine endeavor, and even as
women became more educated in the late 1800s, they were still
seen as far too emotional for something as rational as scientific
thought.

It wasn’t until World War II, when American men went
overseas, that women were recruited for jobs in meteorology
and defense-related fields. Many of these women were promptly
sent back to their homes after the war, but it was too late
to reverse social changes. The Soviet Union’s launch
of Sputnik in 1957 gave rise to a competitive era that required
American educators to place a stronger emphasis on science
education. A decade later, just as this generation of Sputnik
schoolgirls reached college and graduate school age, public
funding for higher education became increasingly available.

As a graduate student at the University of Washington in
the late 1960s and early 1970s, Peggy came of age as a scientist
in a frustrating yet inspiring time for women. She arrived
at NCAR as a postdoctoral researcher in 1972 and joined the
Global Atmospheric Research Program (GARP) Atlantic Tropical
Experiment (GATE) field experiment one year later. Walt Roberts,
NCAR’s founding director, subsequently invited her
to chair the American Meteorological Society’s new
Ad Hoc Committee on the Status of Women in Meteorology, and
she presented a session on the subject at the AMS annual
meeting in Denver.

Shortly after, the AMS formed its Board on Women and Minorities,
with Peggy as chair. In 1980, she represented the board when
it asked the AMS Council to join other scientific organizations
in boycotting states that opposed the proposed equal rights
amendment to the Constitution. She also visited the White
House during the Carter administration as the board’s
representative.

Despite the legal and cultural strides women have made in
recent decades, Peggy says women can still face barriers
in the atmospheric sciences. Girls and women are less likely
to find good science mentors that encourage them to pursue
the field. Paternalistic attitudes toward women in science
still exist, and even innocuous things like using sports
analogies to teach science can make the subject unappealing
or inaccessible. Women are sometimes more willing to spend
time on domestic chores than men, making it harder for them
to commit enough time to their careers.

Friendly workplace policies, family sick leave time, reliable
childcare, and supportive spouses all help, Peggy says. So
does the right attitude. “Have confidence in yourself,
separate big tasks into little ones, find what you enjoy,
and work hard,” she concluded.